Storm geared up for Dragons' clash

By
Luke West

STRATHFIELDSAYE is likely to field its best side of the Bendigo Football League season on Saturday for its much-anticipated rematch with Sandhurst.

Strathfieldsaye captain Shannon Geary.

STRATHFIELDSAYE is likely to field its strongest side of the Bendigo Football League season on Saturday for its much-anticipated rematch with Sandhurst.

The Dragons and Storm have been the two clear standout teams of the BFL this season.

Sandhurst tops the BFL ladder with an unblemished 11-0 record, while the Storm’s sole loss was a 79-point hiding to the Dragons in round three.

However, with Ash Trollop (groin) and Steven Baker (ill) both likely to return to the side that beat Eaglehawk by 30 points last weekend, and Bendigo Gold-listed Sam Heavyside set to play, the Storm are getting close to full tilt for the QEO clash.

With Strathfieldsaye continuing to inject players who have battled injury this season back into the side weekly, it will be a vastly different Strathfieldsaye line-up that plays this Saturday compared to the one that was belted 16.18 (114) to 5.5 (35) by the Dragons in round three.

“What happened that day is obviously in the back of our minds, but more than likely there will be 10 different blokes playing on Saturday to what there was in round three,” Storm captain Shannon Geary said on Wednesday.

“When you change only a couple of players it can have a big impact, let alone nearly half the side.

“But take nothing away from Sandhurst when we first played them. They played an awesome brand of footy.

“They were really good in the forward line and had they converted better, they could have beaten us by 120 or 130 points.

“Obviously, as is the case with any side, we’ll be working on stopping the midfielders from getting the ball into their forward line.”

Since the loss to Sandhurst, the Storm have won their past eight games by an average of 79 points.

“We’d like to think we’re getting to where we want to be, but we’ve still got areas to work on,” Geary said.

“Hopefully, we can put some of that into action on Saturday and we can get the four points.”